Lacuna
by OhMyLayla
Summary: Lucy had never been a member of Fairy Tail, but that didn't stop her from claiming a spot in the lives of some guild members. Freelancer!Lucy. BixLu Week, Day 7: Space.
1. Lacuna

**Edit:** After a good night sleep I re-read this piece and came to a conclusion: I can't write when I'm sleep deprived (that ending, oh God, it was horrible). Now, well rested, hopefully this is better. This took longer than I though it would… Procrastination is my fatal flaw…

 **Summary:** Lucy had never been a member of Fairy Tail, but that didn't stop her of claiming a spot in the lives of some Fairies. Freelancer!Lucy.

 **AN:** This is my contribution for the final day of **BixLu Week, Day 7: Space**. I was traveling with my family since the beginning of October and I just came back, right in the middle of BixLu Week. I had some ideas for the previous days, but I'll probably post them later.

This takes place in the Tenrou Island arc and some parts are compilations of the manga. Since Lucy doesn't know their names, and this is written from her point of view, I couldn't use Bickslow and Freed's names at the beginning (finding nicknames for them was actually fun). Bickslow never fought Lucy dressed as a cheerleader, so he won't call her Cosplayer (owww, I know, disappointing).

English is NOT my first language, so be nice when you find mistakes and correct me (please, I'm here to learn).

 **Read this first:** As you can see, this is going to be an AU where Lucy never joined Fairy Tail (or any other guild, for that matter). She is what I'm calling a Freelancer, she takes jobs of any kind without the supervision of a guild (an Independent mage, if you prefer, but I like Freelancer).

She still possesses her keys, but most of them were obtained in a different way.

Loke is a member of Fairy Tail, even if Lucy isn't. He still is Gray's partner

Cana chose Lily as her partner. She found Mavis grave on her own.

* * *

 **Space** ( ** _noun_** ) - An element of art, space refers to distances or areas around, between or within components of a piece. Space can be _positive_ (white or light) or _negative_ (black or dark), _open_ or _closed_ , _shallow_ or _deep_ and _two-dimensional_ or _three-dimensional_. Sometimes space isn't actually within a piece, but the _illusion_ of it is.

 _Everything started with a debt._

She needed money, desperately, so she stole one job request from Fairy Tail and impersonated one of its members. It was a dangerous thing to do, steal directly from one of the light guilds, but that guild was easy to fool. Fairy Tail was constantly sending members to missions and pilling up bills because of its destructives tendencies, a small job always went unseen by the guild Master's eyes.

Lucy still got caught, although not by the fairies, nor the Council. Ivan, the Master of a dark guild known as Raven Tail ( _how original_ ), knew right away she was an imposter, and in exchange for his silence, he told her to steal one thing for him; he wanted Fairy Glitter.

It was a spell that resided in Fairy Tail's sacred land, sealed in their first master's resting place. It wasn't the first time Lucy would have to steal something bigger than her (and she thanked every night Virgo's competence and willingness to save some of her things in the spirit world for her). The problem, however, was that the place was protected by a barrier, which made it impossible to locate said land, unless a member brought you along.

After talking to Loke she was able to discover that Fairy Tail's S-Class Trials would happen in Tenrou Island (which, Lucy concluded, was their sacred land) and the solution presented itself. Sneaking into the boat was easy, everyone seemed to be distracted by the upcoming trials, she doubted anyone would bother to search for a stowaway.

While the fairies were busy fighting themselves, Lucy went through the island, using Crux and Pyxis to guide her in that strange land (of course _Fairy Tail's_ island would be freakish, why was she surprised).

And then Grimoire Heart attacked. Because, why not? Things were too easy anyway, just running from giant monsters never seen before, dodging strong mages… Too simple, of course.

(Wasn't she Lucky Lucy? Where is the _Lucky_ in this situation?!)

* * *

 _Lucy's kindness will be the death of her_. It will, she is certain.

During Grimoire Heart invasion, Lucy had to double her efforts to stay unnoticed. The search for the grave was quickly becoming too dangerous and in other circumstances she would have quitted the job hours ago. Unfortunately it wasn't an option, everybody knows what happens if you back off on a deal with Ivan (and how was she supposed to reach the main land? With _Aquarius_? Ha!).

While running from the more intense fights going on around and avoiding the strange creatures residing on the island, Lucy stumbled in a shelter made by the fairies and ducked behind a bush before anyone could see her. She was looking for the grave, but she keep bumping on the fairies (the island was crawling with them).

She could see from her hiding place two girls, one bluenette and one with short white hair, and a black cat standing between a strange man with silver-colored hair in a pompadour style and other injured fairies. The girls and the cat were clearly exhausted, they were breathing hard and had multiple wounds, even though the fight hadn't started.

Lucy considered joining the fight, she couldn't leave anyone helpless to defend themselves, it was against her nature, something that was firmly in place with her morals, on the other hand her surviving instinct (the one thing that keeps her alive) was crying and yelling desperately that _she was going to die_ ; her fingers were already closing around Taurus' golden key – she didn't remember reaching for the keychain – when the dark mage went flying.

Two mages stood in the middle of the field, they looked like characters escaped from one of her favorite books: a prince with a long fancy red coat and a knight wearing a helmet, arriving just in time to save them all; both with their bodies' tense, waiting for the fight. Just looking at them made a shiver run down her spine, Lucy felt like if they merely looked in her direction she would be crushed, snapped like a twig. She heard stories from others freelancers and some mages about how Fairy Tail wasn't a guild to be trifled with, but she never believed. How can a bunch of drunkards be a serious threat? She felt like eating her unspoken words.

"Freed! Bickslow!" One of the girls cried, Lucy didn't know which one, she didn't dare to look away from the newcomers. The men didn't acknowledge their guildmates, making it impossible for Lucy to know which were their names. She didn't know every single member, just the ones she had to be ware and the girls she could impersonate.

The mages of Fairy Tail exchanged a few words, letting Lucy know that Gildarts Clive came back. While it was a relief knowing that a powerful mage like The Ace of Fairy Tail had joined in the fight against the dark guild, it also complicated her mission of stealing their first master's grave. She would bet her keychain that they wouldn't be happy with anyone stealing the resting place.

(She wasn't giving up on the job! Although Ivan was starting to sound the lesser of two evils.)

The dark mage was on his feet in a flash, a big dark armored arm materializing around his right arm with claws that could cut flesh and bones easily. "A couple more weaklings added to the mix are no match for my arc of embodiment!" He exclaimed dramatically, making exaggerated gestures with his hands.

"From the start, we never had any plans of doing this fair and square." A deep voice echoed in the field, Lucy could hear anger and violence in every syllable, almost if he could deliver actual punches with just his words. "Now, we're going to take you down!" The knight – Bickslow - snarled.

"You've committed the crime of hurting our comrades." The prince's voice was coated in frost, just like his eyes had the ice of glaciers. Half of her expected his magic to be related to ice.

Without a second to spare, the knight took action. "Baryon Formation!" He cried and small wooden tokens formed a circle and released a green beam. Unfortunately the dark mage was able to protect him with a big golden shield that suddenly appeared in his hand. As gloated of his powerful shield, Lucy marveled in his stupidity (wasn't he a member of Grimoire Heart? How could he get distracted with _himself_?!), but the prince was already moving in.

"Dark Ecriture: Pain!" He thrust his sword numerous times, each stroke reminds her of a talented calligraphist maneuvering his brush, and creating strange words in thin air. Lucy didn't know in what language that was, or even if they were actual words, much less what they could do, but considering the name, she got the idea. However, the dark mage dodged by making fluffy white wings to appear on his feet, calling them Pegasus wings.

"You think you can defeat my creativity!?" The dark mage laughed. "My power is infinite!" Opening his arms, a black mass started to form behind him. Lucy had to bite her tongue to stop the small squeak that threatened to escape her, for the black mass quickly took the form of a humongous creature, a beast that had metal plates and spikes covering every inch of its body. If she didn't know better, she would call that a dragon. "Sacred Guardian Beast, Belfast of the Hurricane! _Tear them down!_ "

Before Lucy could even move (she didn't know if she was capable of moving at this point), the knight pointed upward with two fingers of his right arm. "Seidhr Magic, Puppeteer!" The beast stopped mid-roar and stared at the Fairy Tail mage. Was he controlling that thing? The dark mage expression changed to surprise and disbelief, but too fast for him to take any action, the knight pulled his arm back down. " _Crush!_ "

The creature exploded in a big cloud of smoke, his summoner screaming beside it as pieces of the beast fell down on them. That horrendous monster was exterminated in seconds and Lucy was starting to reconsider all her views about Fairy Tail. Maybe taking on Ivan was really the best way to go…

"Dark Ecriture…" Lucy turned from the knight, almost forgetting there were three people fighting. The prince wrote with his sword a new word on his own chest, with careful precision and Lucy was surprised he didn't nick himself (sometimes she would cut herself with her _keys_ , how can he do that with a _sword_?). "Absolute Shadow." The prince's eyes turned complete black for a second, followed by a dark armor materializing. He rushed forward, using his right hand to create an electric orb, and swatted the enemy mage aside with it, electrocuting the guy.

The dark mage fell like a dead weight. He pushed himself in a sitting position in front of the Fairy Tail mages. His whole body shaking, Lucy realized, his breath was irregular, his face was pale and his eyes were wide open and frightened; he was completely terrified. She could feel her own hands shaking, the prospect of having a whole guild of mages like those two after her when she steals from their sacred ground made bile rise to her throat and she had difficulty to swallow.

"Get up." The knight demanded, his tone was flat, but authoritative.

"There is no path to redemption for you." The prince stated, his way of speaking was elegant, reminding of the past Lucy ran from. It was the speech everyone in the high class aimed for: graceful, but without losing the strength behind the words.

Slowly the dark mage rose himself to his feet, body still shaking. Lucy couldn't really blame him, the aura around those two was suffocating, even from where she was; she didn't want to imagine what it would feel like to have that targeting you. As he got his balance back, his arrogance also seemed to get back to its feet.

"Fearis just more inspiration for my imagination!" With a dramatic wave of his arm, millions of ghosts materialized and wrapped around the two Fairy mages. The entities flowed around like a violent river, stopping their movements and forcing them to back off. "Come forth! Ghosts of the Britear! Devour the spirits of the fairies!"

"Woaa!" The knight exclaimed as the ghosts started to constrict him.

"They're wrapping around our bodies!" The prince exclaimed, if it was to warn his comrades or he was merely stating the obvious was unknown for Lucy.

The other three fairies watching the fight were worried for their friends and so was Lucy. Until that moment the fight was dominated by Fairy Tail, but with both of them not being able to get out of those ghosts, maybe the tides were turning. The knight and the prince tried to attack the ghosts near them, but their strikes merely went through them.

"I'll eat up every last one of you!" Lucy turned back to the dark mage in time to see him materializing the dark armored arm once more. He got himself in position and Lucy realized he was going to attack the two defenseless mages.

A string of water wrapped around the armored arm, stopping the mage from attacking. He turned around and looked directly at Lucy, who had Fleuve d'étoiles activated and a fierce expression. Inside, however, Lucy was yelling at herself for always getting in trouble while rescuing others (and another part of her was laughing because she just _rescued two of Fairy Tail's best_!). "And who are you supposed to be?" The dark mage asked. He pulled his arm back and Lucy allowed the whip to deactivate so she wouldn't be pulled by him.

"I'm Lucy." She responded (and later scolded herself, she could have said something awesome, what a wasted opportunity). She took one of her gold keys out of the keychain and twisted it imitating opening a lock. "Open the Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!" A bright golden light shone and Lucy felt the drain from opening a door to another world. As the brightness faded, a woman with short pink hair and dressed as a maid became visible.

"Punishment, princess?" Virgo asked with an expressionless face.

"N-No! Stop asking that!" Lucy could feel her face getting red. She didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea of what she did with her spirits, she was starting to get a reputation on the streets because of her spirits' eccentric ways. "Just free those two! And be careful to not get stuck!" She waved her arm in the general direction of the two Fairy mages.

"Yes, princess." Virgo did a quick bow and, with a quick twist of her body, she was already underground through a perfectly round tunnel.

Turning back to the dark mage, Lucy tightened her grip on the whip. He was powerful, she knew he was above her level, but she just had to buy some time for Virgo. She tensed her body, readying herself, when the taunting voice of her opponent reached her.

"Do you even know what you're getting yourself into, little girl?" He smirked and threw his arms in the air dramatically. "I'm one of the Seven Kin of Purgatory, the strongest team of Grimoire Heart! Rustyrose!"

"Well, I'm the best freelancer mage of Fiore!" Lucy yelled, resisting the urge to shake her fist at him.

The reaction wasn't what she expected, Rustyrose laughed at her title like it was the funniest joke he ever heard. "A freelancer mage? What, no guild accepted you?" His laugh only increased after that, he was almost doubling over with the force of his amusement.

Lucy flushed with anger and humiliation. She had a reason to be a freelancer, she had to keep moving, otherwise her father would find her and force her to go back. Joining a guild would make it easier for him to locate her.

(Not that she didn't try, but Blue Pegasus didn't want to cause any conflicts with their Celestial Mage, and many others light guilds looked down on her because of her magic.)

"Shut up!" She smacked the whip at him, catching him on his cheek and knocking his glasses aside. Lucy stilled for a moment, she didn't imagine that she would land a hit on him with that amateur move, and Rustyrose shared her thoughts. His disbelief quickly turned into anger.

"How dare you!?" His armored arm extended until it reached Lucy, he backhand her and she hit the ground hard; her arms and legs getting scratches with the rough ground (she was blaming the ground, not her revealing clothes, it made her feel better), and she could feel a bruise growing in her side. He was strong, she knew that, but Lucy was also missing two of her strongest spirits; Loke had returned to the Spirit World because he was wounded earlier and there was no water nearby for summoning Aquarius.

"Line Formation!"

A large, vertical crescent-shaped green beam struck the ground between Lucy and Rustyrose, forcing him to jump back for safety, while she covered herself from the smoke and debris that flew up when the beam stuck the ground. When she could open her eyes again, Lucy saw the prince engaging in fight with Rustyrose. Hands around her arm called her attention and she noticed the knight right behind her, pulling her up.

"You alright?"

"Y-Yes, I'm fine." She stammered. His hands were warm, a little callous, but it felt nice. Why was she even analyzing his hands? Did she hit her head or something?

"You sure?" He asked again, his mouth tightening a little. Lucy didn't know what face she was making, but it certainly wasn't a convincing one.

"I think I hit my head." She didn't know why she said that, her brain to mouth filter must has been compromised. All she could focus was the strong presence of the mage beside her and how safe she felt now that he (and the prince) was back in the fight.

"We can have your head checked later. Now step back, princess."

She turned her head to his helmet and glared to the general area where his eyes should be. "My name is Lucy." She stated firmly.

He chuckled a little. "Got that earlier. The name is Bickslow, princess."

Lucy opened her mouth to argue again, but the prince interrupted her, calling Bickslow to "be done with the pleasantries and help". With a yell of "Coming, Freed!" he threw a smirk in her direction with his tongue out, the mark of his guild proudly present in a gesture that should be weird and freaky, but somehow passed as cute.

(Guys have issues with being called cute, and 'cute' should be the last thing she should associate with someone like Bickslow, but his boyish charm caught her.

Of course, it could be her damsel in distress complex; she had a thing for knights in shinny armor.)

Bickslow and Freed easily took back the fight and Lucy relaxed a little, she knew in that pace those two would be victorious. Not even a minute after the though, the girls and the cat suddenly fell to the ground with exclamations of pain and Rustyrose threw Bickslow and Freed to the ground while laughing maniacally. The dark mage looked overexcited with the turn of events, but didn't seem surprised. She felt her emotions were in the reverse spectrum.

"What's going on here?!" Freed shouted the question Lucy was about to ask.

"I…can barely move…" Bickslow exclaimed with difficulty.

Lucy's breath caught in her throat. What was happening? Everyone suddenly got drained of their strength, with her and Rustyrose as the only exceptions. Maybe, whatever it was, it only affected mages from Fairy Tail. Their sacred land was said to bring them strength, maybe it could also take away. No matter the reason, Bicklow and Freed needed help once again.

(Cue internal fangirlism.)

"Open the Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!" With the key ready, Lucy made the motion of opening a door, the bright light that followed couldn't hide the massive bull that appeared, much less the large twin-headed axe he had resting on his shoulder.

He released his war cry of "Miss Lucy's boobs are the best!" before rushing to Rustyrose, who raised his arm to defend himself from Taurus' axe, but still got throw back by the force the bull possessed. They exchanged a few blows before the fairies were back on their feet, apparently recovered from whatever affected them.

"We're back in action!" Bickslow exclaimed. Taurus had gotten a few more hits in before Bickslow and Freed rushed and their three combined attacks got Rustyrose more than once. The dark mage couldn't defend himself from the different attacks raining down on him, and Taurus seemed to fit in Bickslow and Freed's fighting styles perfectly. She thought that was expected, Taurus was known as one of the best fighters from the zodiac, with so many years of experience he probably is used to reading another person's moves, either to fight them or to fight with them. This was the first time she saw the bull cooperating with anyone other than herself.

With the fight once more under control, Lucy was able to call out to the others fairies. "What was that all about?" She asked, but never took her eyes off the four males fighting.

"Well, for now it looks like our magic power is back to normal." The small, blue haired girl answered her with happiness.

"What happened, Azuma?!" Rustyrose yelled, but didn't seem to address any of them. "All their magic power has returned!"

"Do you need them out of magic power to be able to win?" The other girl raged, Lucy was actually surprised such a kind looking girl could have so much bite. The girl's eyes held a fire that could burn down villages. "What are you, a _coward_?"

"Lisanna, don't taunt the enemy! " The bluenette exclaimed.

Too late, Lucy though, as something snapped inside Rustyrose.

"Come forth! Tower of Dingir!" Lucy felt something closing around the lower part of her body and pull her upwards. The sudden movement made her drop her keychain and Lucy could only watch as her keys got smaller and smaller while she shot into the sky with the others. "Come out from the earth and crash through all those foolish faeries!"

"What is this…" She looked to her side and there were Bickslow and Freed, the bottom half of their bodies stuck inside the tower just like her; it was Freed she had heard. "I can't move my body…"

(Lucy pondered if she should point out it was the _third time_ they got somehow paralyzed, but though better of it.)

"Our only hope happened to have an eye open." Bickslow said as he removed his helmet. Lucy was watching him; his hair was definitely as unique as Bickslow himself. Blue and black hair stilled in something similar to a Mohawk with his own personal touches. He had a strange tattoo on his forehead, of a cartoonish little man.

"Lucy!" At the sound of her name, Lucy looked up and found the blue haired girl. "Don't look! He's going to use his eye magic, you _can't look_!"

"I'll be taking control of you." She heard Bickslow and immediately turned her attention to the field underneath them.

There a big man, probably the size of Taurus stood with difficulty. The bandages around his body made him look like a mummy, but blended with his spiked white hair.

"By all means." His voice was almost a whisper and Lucy wondered how she heard it from so far. He was dragging his feet, his arms laying limp by his sides, and wobbling from one side to the other, like moving his own body was too much of a strain. Judging by the amount of bandages on him and the still visible wounds, she was surprised he was even standing.

"Let's go!" Bickslow yelled and suddenly the new man was rushing to Rustyrose, no sign of the previous exhaustion, and roundhouse kicking the dark mage. The moment its creator lost his concentration, the tower disappeared.

With them in mid air, of course.

In mid fall Taurus called out to Freed, positioning his axe as a foothold and Freed immediately understood the spirit's idea, and used it to shot straight into Rustyrose for a final strike. Done with his job, the bull closed his own gate.

Lucy, not having the ability to grow wings or a flying cat to catch her – like the other girls – was free falling to her _death_.

(Her brain was right from the beginning, _she was going to die_.)

"Gotcha!"

Or not. Cheers for staying alive.

Two arms were encircling her waist and her back was suddenly pressed to a guy's front. She looked up and was met with red eyes and a cheerful smile with a tongue sticking out. It took a few seconds for Lucy to realize it was Bickslow without his helmet that caught her, even if she had a brief glimpse of his face up in the tower. She gave him a breathless smile and he answered with a laugh. Everybody around her was laughing and celebrating the hard earned victory, and for the first time since the death of her mother, Lucy felt like there was a place where she could belong, a space she could fit.

It felt like it had been waiting for her to fill that lacuna.

* * *

 **AN:** Oh, thank god, it's finished.

I think I'm a couple of hours late for the Day 7… Oh, whatever.

I haven't revised it yet, so there might be quite some mistakes. I'm not revising it now because I've been writing this since last night and I need to sleep.

As I stated on the AN on the top: English isn't my first language, so be kind when you see a mistake, I'm learning.

I'm thinking of writing a long fic based on this one. Would anyone read it? Freelancer!Lucy during the Grand Magic Games? I have many things planed!

 **Word count:** 4404

 **Update:** Every time I re-read this I find a new mistake. What the hell. I don't even know the word count anymore.


	2. Sequel: Improptu

**UPDATE:** I've revised it, changed a few things, and fixed the crappy ending.

Sorry it took so long, college started right after I posted Lacuna and the beginning was complete chaos. Also, I'm working in a crossover between Teen Wolf and Supernatural with my sister, so that took a good portion of my free time.

I've decided to give the sequel a go. I've being planning and writing during my calculus and basic statistics classes; I can't guarantee there will be a new chapter every week, but I'll give my best.

(Reviews are much appreciated and they motivate me to write, just a hint.)

The sequel will be named **Impromptu** and there will be twelve chapters plus an extra.


End file.
